FRANCESCA CACCINI (1587 – between 1641 and 1645). Music history is just like any other sort of history. So we’re told that the first opera was Orfeo produced in 1607 in Mantua and of course that was composed by a man. But what if a woman had got there first? Francesca Caccini was born into a family of musicians for the Medici in Florence. The first evidence of her singing and composing dates back to 1602 and by the time she was 27 she was the highest paid musician in the Medici court. Which incidentally, was also run by a woman. That’s another story. Francesca, La Cecchina as she was nicknamed she was so famous, poured out quantities of comic operas. She is certainly the first woman to write an opera, and in 1618 she published a large collection of love songs, to her own texts, very musically adventurous for the time and often intensely moving and beautiful
Presented by composer Joan Tower for International Women’s Month in March, written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
